Beware the Advocate
by crowind
Summary: Sasuke's last night in Konoha took a slightly different turn. Naruto wasn't the only one whom Sakura had sought for assurances.


In a village full of ninja it sometimes happened that ninja sleep. Shut the doors and windows, and to all appearances dead to the world. The street was empty but for a boy and a girl, and the full moon. The moon, the moon, always peeking through bamboo screens, always becoming unwitting witness to trysts and awkward love confessions. Sakura was winding down with hers. Being a ninja, it was in fact her last resort. Her leader had failed her, disappearing at her hour of need; her appeal to risks to him failed to sway the reckless pride of a young man with a powerful ancestry; all that was left was baring her heart.

And through everything he stayed, as a stolid island while the waves of her words raged around him. And when his turn came it was a few words. He was smiling, but she looked as though it was a knife behind his tongue.

In a blink he stood behind her. The boy was a ninja, and so was the girl. He struck, and she deflected. Now there was distance between them once again.

And the illusion of privacy was shattered when four Sound ninja stepped over, surrounding the girl.

"Need a hand, Sasuke-sama?" said the biggest of them.

The boy scowled, stuck his chin. "It's none of your business. Leave her to me."

But the silver-haired man looked at the girl up and down. She had stopped crying, but she still looked to the boy with something like trust. The Sound ninja said, "Clingy girl, isn't she? Or…" He leered at Sasuke. Somehow it was the girl who shuddered. "Is it the other way around? Well, why not. Orochimaru-sama might not mind."

"You–"

The only woman among them stomped her foot. "Fuck it, just kill her."

The four scattered as the boy came between them, eyes like liquid fire in the dark. "I said leave her alone," he snarled, putting his body between her and the Sound ninja.

So. The boy had a line. The Sound ninja saw, and they were none too pleased.

Then the girl screamed as a hand burst free of her shoulder. Next came a head of silver – but no, the Sound ninja hadn't moved.

"Ah-ah-ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you," the parasite said. Thin, spidery fingers pressed to the girl's neck, already squeezed under the errant head. Sasuke set his jaw, but reluctantly took a step back. A malevolent grin split the parasite's face. "Really, what does Orochimaru-sama see in you? Well, whatever, you're coming with us, girly."

That was Tsunade's cue to exercise her duty as the Hokage, protector of the village. Combined, none of them lasted more than five minutes. Tsunade felt short-changed. Untangling the mess would take the entire night.

Well, it wouldn't be an Uchiha without a headache-inducing drama in his wake.

* * *

The Hokage watched over her. It was something all children in Konoha were taught early in their life. The Hokage watched over everyone; the Hokage would keep you safe. Sakura felt: the Hokage larger than life, stone cold and utterly unimpressed by mortal happenings; the same Hokage, smaller and colourful and still unimpressed, even disappointed with the sort of delinquents gracing the Hokage's office; the one live Hokage who put the fire in the shadow.

Just a few days ago she had been Tsunade-sama, legendary medic-nin, the medic-nin: a beautiful smile that rekindled hope to go with a flawless healing that made good on said hope. Sakura had loved the new Hokage at first sight.

Now she barely resisted the urge to get on her knees and bow. She still loved the Hokage, though. The way she had jumped into rescue like a hero out of a story, vanquish the threat in seconds, and, to seal the deal, heal Sakura without batting an eyelash; what else was Sakura supposed to do?

With difficulty she stayed still, greater still her attempt to ignore her fellow delinquent. He had no compunctions against meeting the Hokage's gaze – all of them – dead on.

But the Hokage – the current one – had eyes only for Sakura for the moment. She was sure her heart stopped then. "How're your wounds?"

Sasuke threw her a furtive glance, and as one they looked the other way. Sakura gazed at the Hokage's… nose seemed to be the safest port in the storm. "Um, it's fine. Thank you, Hokage-sama." Her shoulder and back throbbed painfully in revenge. It turned out that violent, rapid outgrowth left its marks. I want a shower and a scrub, subcutaneous. Can I have my skin replaced, please, Hokage-sama?

The Hokage probably had her fill of profuse gratitude of a lifetime, Sakura reflected; she was already moving to Sasuke with a "Hm." Sasuke glowered, as if daring her to demand gratitude out of him. "Bah, I haven't got all– morning," she said, glowering at the window behind her. The moon was waning, though it was still dark. "Uchiha, why don't you start with telling me why you were packed and ready for our infiltrators. No, let me re-phrase that: why did they seem to be convinced you'd requisitioned their help to abscond?"

There went the kidnapping angle. Sakura wished she could hold his hand, anything to urge him to–

"You were listening."

–be anything but the stubborn contrarian he was fast becoming lately. Sasuke-kun, you idiot. As though he had heard, Sasuke rounded on her, furious. "You told her."

He sounded indignant and betrayed. Sakura didn't dare look at him, nearly consumed by shame as it was. Never mind that the Hokage hadn't been in her office when she'd come calling, that it had been sheer dumb luck she had taken Sakura's message seriously at all. Oh, but she would just have to endure it a little more, didn't she? At the moment his standing in the Hokage's eye was more important than Sakura's in his eye, and Sasuke didn't seem to understand how precarious his position was. A part of her suspected he didn't care.

The Hokage looked back coolly, visibly impatient. She told the Hokage, "Please, Hokage-sama, if I may speak to you in private?"

The Hokage's fingers did a half-hearted dance in air, and an ANBU materialised to escort Sasuke outside. She felt two eye-shaped – pinwheel-shaped? – burning holes on her back.

She wrung her hands, then stopped. She started worrying at her lips when she bit her tongue instead. And the Hokage just let her stew. Finally, she said, "It's the seal, Hokage-sama. Sasuke-kun… ever since Orochimaru gave him the seal he's been…"

"Ill-tempered?" The Hokage said. "Power-hungry? Ruthless to the point of injuring a teammate who got in the way?"

However much Sakura would like to disagree, she couldn't. Sasuke hadn't helped either. Oh, sure, he'd thanked her for her confession, after he'd called her annoying, and before he… Sakura wanted very much to believe she had just been jumpy, to react the way she did, but what else did ninja do from behind?

Later! Later, when no one's on the chopping block.

"Orochimaru promised him power," Sakura said. Orochimaru, who was the Hokage's own teammate, once upon a time. Not that mentioning his name had helped; the Hokage was positively radiating (reverse-radiating, even) frost.

"He– Sasuke-kun, I mean – he needs power to hunt the man who murdered his clan. And, um, isn't it scary, Hokage-sama, that a clan can be eliminated in one night by one man? And, and that dangerous man is still out there. Maybe he's planning a greater atrocity to the village!

"And…" The Hokage – the flat, colourful versions of them – were glaring at her. What was that the Third had liked to say? She had the impression he was big on justice and dignity. Maybe as his student the current Hokage had inherited that. "Well, it's embarrassing that we can't get justice for the Uchiha… So Sasuke-kun is dedicated to that. But I think Orochimaru's seal is playing with his head, and that's why he's a bit… um, impulsive."

"No, he's just an Uchiha," the Hokage murmured. "You're quite right; we do not suffer rogues gladly; there are carefully selected and trained personnels for this purpose."

It sounded ominous to Sakura. She tried, "Y-yes, and as you can see, Sasuke-kun is very driven and talented, so if he's given the chance –"

"Yes, yes, talents, those cursed eyes of his. There have been transplantations, you know. It seems to work for your teacher." The Hokage smiled. It put to mind her infamous teammate.

Her eyes began to sting.

"But that's not what I–"

"It's a brilliant idea, thank you for reminding me," the Hokage began. Her eyes widened slightly, and Sakura was grimly pleased to discover that panic flitted through them, however briefly. Very briefly; in the next second her infamous temper flared, barely kept at bay. "Listen, you. You are a kunoichi of Konoha, are you not? You do not come to me half-drawn."

Perhaps it was Sasuke's influence that Sakura was tempted to obey the Hokage and let the dam break. Would it fluster her, the great kunoichi and leader of her village? But Sakura didn't so much as sniffle, much less let a single tear fall, and rather pathetically, she took pride in that. "Kakashi-sensei cannot keep the Sharingan open for long. It drains his chakra. A true-born Uchiha–"

"True, but it wasn't I who made the procedures." She pinched the bridge of her nose. There was a small dent there that set it off from her otherwise perfect face. Once she noticed that, she couldn't help noticing the small discolouration on her cheek, or the small patches under her eyes that seemed drier. "It's late, so I'll cut to the chase. You're a good kid, at least a lot more clever than either of your teammates. So I'm sure you know there is not an argument on earth that will convince me to cater to the whims of a brat who would injure the girl who loves him."

"He wouldn't have done that!" Sakura said, too agitated to be embarrassed. "He– he was just going to incapacitate me. Sasuke-kun wouldn't!" It was a feeble denial, and even the Hokage knew, and she pitied her.

"I have no shortage of talented ninja. I can take you – yes, you, Haruno Sakura." Her skin jumped just a little. She hadn't expected the Hokage to know her name at all. "I can and will personally turn you into a ninja to surpass me. Loyalty and grace, integrity and compassion, these things Uchiha doesn't have, the very qualities Orochimaru rejects – I will make great the ninja who have these. Konoha does not need Orochimaru or Uchiha Sasuke and their ilk."

She stood; Sakura probably should have followed suit, but her legs felt leaden, and her knuckles were white around her seat. "Send him in." The Hokage's voice was sharp. It was judgement time. Sakura had failed.

* * *

Weasel-mask was armed only with standard-issue ninjatou. Nondescript and androgynous. Short and slight. Completely unremarkable, a true non-presence. Sasuke could take him – her… it.

And give the Hokage an excuse to smash his head open bare-handed? And Sakura, she would try to stop him again, of course. She was resilient like that. He had never expected to see it turned against him, he reasoned to himself, otherwise he would have reacted differently.

Would you, foolish little brother? Itachi's spectre had been haunting him as of late. In the brightly-lit and silent hall of the Hokage's tower, he had never been clearer. This is why I was leaving, he thought. He had left. All he'd had to do was stay still. If Itachi had been in his place…

Itachi had the Mangekyou Sharingan. Sasuke didn't. It was as clear as that.

His fingers found the edge of the bandages around his hand. Sasuke clenched his fists, glared at the ANBU. Weasel-mask jerked, opened the door to the Hokage's office, and tilted his head in that direction.

The Hokage stood before the great window overlooking the village. It was still dark.

"Sit down, Uchiha."

Sakura refused to look at him even when he tried his best to seem not angry. Sasuke sat and glared at the Hokage's back, which proudly declared her number one vice. Who the hell thought a gambler could make a Hokage?

Hers was a voice that cut across the battlefield – Sasuke had a firsthand account in his ringing ears – and tonight she exerted just a little below that. "Do you know why you're here wasting my night, Uchiha?"

Sakura, he noticed, was doing her best turtle impression without actually curling. Irked, he said, "You shouldn't have, Hokage-sama."

"No, of course not. It's a clear-cut case to begin with." The Hokage turned, scowling with disgust and just a little disappointment – really? She spoke slowly. "For your desertion, the punishment of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura –"

"What," Sasuke said. Sakura just blinked owlishly, first at him, then at the Hokage.

"I have ears, you know. It was a rather masterful proposition, by the way." His neck burned. Sakura, he noticed, had the 'kill me' face she usually wore whenever Naruto ran the wrong side of a client. "Raw, but all the better for sincerity, eh? Especially the part where you would abandon everything for the sake of this boy. Then she had the audacity to frame this as an episode of your… nobility, Uchiha. No?" The more Sakura seemed visibly horrified the wider the Hokage's smirk. "Filial piety, then. You Uchiha have always been particularly good with that.

"Let him be."

The last was addressed to Weasel-face, who had materialised at his back at the same time that Sakura squeaked, "Sasuke-kun!" In each of his eyes, three tomoe spun and spun, three times as fast as the seal on his shoulder pulsed and throbbed. The Hokage did not so much as contract a muscle.

"Leave her out of this," he growled. He spoke fast; preposterous ideas deserved nothing but the swiftest of dispatch. "I wasn't about to take her with me. Why would I? She's weak; she'd only get in the way. I don't have use for her at all. She was never part of the plan."

"Are you sure? Orochimaru would want compensation for the men he lost today. Besides, she foiled your plan."

Sakura, he knew, had been holding her breath. Sakura, who was actually clever but could be so spectacularly stupid. He thought of Itachi, of what he would do in his position. I'm not you. I'm going to find my own way. In a hollow voice he said, "Let her go. You have me. Let her go. She has nothing to do with me."

He regretted having the Sharingan on; did he really need to remember the Hokage's smirk blooming in exquisite details?

"Aw, that's cute," she cooed. "You two make a good pair. I think I'll not separate you after all." Her knuckles rapped her desk as she nodded to herself. Sakura tensed, so did Sasuke. Firmly, the Hokage said, "Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, for your actions tonight, you will henceforth cease your operations as part of Team Seven under Hatake Kakashi.

"Beginning tomorrow you will report to me. Oh, you will, Uchiha; he'll make sure of it." Sasuke had forgotten about Weasel-face, most likely because there was a different ANBU in his place. "Don't think you have been granted clemency.

"As for you, Sakura." Despite her gentler tone, Sakura jumped anyway. "Remember what I told you, and hold on to it.

"Now get some rest. That's an order, Uchiha."

It was Cat-mask who escorted them. Sakura's house came first after an eternity of awkward silence. She lingered by the gate, making him worry about her wounds for a second. Finally, she said, "Hey, Sasuke-kun…"

The entire trip he had been turning things over in his head. From gratitude to wrath to the miscellaneous in between, all in the span of one night, in the end he concluded he owed her something. It was just the ANBU's presence had sapped his enthusiasm for the idea. But since Sakura had taken the first step… "Hn?"

"Um, good night." She stole into her own house, clambering through the window like the thief she was.


End file.
